Several months ago a friend purchased three Pioneer Tool Racks from Old Grouch’s Military Surplus. The boxes had gotten wet, and as a result he got a really good deal on them. Jack Spirko mentioned them on his show, and once he took a look at them, he was sold. So he picked up one for himself, one for me, and one for a mutual friend. I loved the idea of being able to carry an axe, a shovel, and a mattock in one convenient package. Only one problem; my truck has a cap on it, making it hard to mount the rack inside the bed, and still be able to access it easily. What to do, what to do? Finally, I came up with the idea of building a mounting system to use the hitch receiver.

I wanted something that could be mounted and taken off easily, could pivot down to allow full access to the bed, and would hold the tools and the rack securely. After all, no one wants a bunch of heavy tools and steel flying at their windshield at 80 miles an hour.

When I was finished, I liked the design so much that, rather than just doing a video, I also created a document on how the mount was built so others could see how simple, if not easy, it really is. You can download it for free here: